The Conservative synagogues in Brockton, Randolph and Stoughton have begun planning a consolidation that will begin in 2014.

Congregation presidents say that if members at all three synagogues approve the plan, Temple Beth Emunah in Brockton, Temple Beth Am in Randolph and Ahavath Torah Congregation in Stoughton will become a new synagogue with a new name.

The new congregation would temporarily gather at Temple Beth Emunah in Brockton beginning in July 2014, and stay there until a new worship center is built in the area. The consolidated congregation would include some 600 families.

With all three congregations shrinking, “We decided, let’s have this conversation now, while we’re all solid and stable,” said Ahavath Torah president David Schulze, chairman of the unification steering committee.

Synagogues don’t have the kind of centralized support of a more top-down organization like the Roman Catholic Church, said Stephen Berlin, president of the congregation at Temple Beth Emunah in Brockton. Each congregation contracts with its rabbi and pays utilities and other bills.

“It’s starting to be a financial stress,” Berlin said.

Local temples

Braintree: Temple B’nai Shalom. Conservative.

Canton: Temple Beth Abraham. Conservative.

Temple Beth David of the South Shore. Reform.

Easton: Temple Chayai Shalom

Hingham: Congregation Sha-aray Shalom. Reform.

Holbrook: Temple Beth Shalom.

Hull: Temple Israel of Nantasket.

Marshfield: Temple Shirat Hayam. Reconstructionist.

Milton: Temple Shalom. Conservative.

Plymouth: Beth Jacob Synagogue. Reform.

Randolph: Temple Beth Am. Conservative.

Young Israel-Kehillath Jacob. Orthodox.

Sharon: Congregation Etz Chaim. Orthodox.

Temple Adath Sharon. Conservative.

Temple Israel. Conservative.|

Temple Sinai. Reform.

Young Israel. Orthodox.

Stoughton: Ahavath Torah Congregation. Conservative.

The Brockton congregation counted 400 member families in its heyday; that number has been cut in half.

“It’s better to do it now ... than a year or two too late,” he said of the consolidation.

Berlin said having Temple Beth Emunah as the temporary home softens the blow for his members, but there will still be a loss of identity at the 62-year-old temple. Beth Emunah is the last of four synagogues once active in the city.

“Most people understand that people can’t go on the way they are,” Berlin said. “We have some people, their parents were founders. This is all they’ve ever known.”

Page 2 of 2 - At Beth Am in Randolph, president Martin Cohne stressed that the plan will unify the congregations, not merge two of them into the third.

“This is an opportunity for all of us to create what that new entity will be,” he said.

Schulze said the three congregations will suggest possible new names and together agree on the final choice.

Brandeis University professor and American Judaism scholar Jonathan Sarna said it is no surprise the three synagogues are looking at consolidation – much as many Roman Catholic parishes and Protestant churches in New England have merged in recent years.

“Conservative congregations have been merging all over (the country),” Sarna said. “The cost advantages ... are enormous.”

If the local unification is approved by congregational votes, the Beth Am and Ahavath Torah properties would be sold in early 2014. Brockton’s Temple Beth Emunah would be sold after the new synagogue is built.

Schulze said the steering committee has begun surveying the area for sites for the new synagogue. Cohne said it will be located at a convenient distance for the three congregations, but also convenient for young Jewish families who move into the area. Without those families, “you can’t sustain a congregation,” Cohne said.

The next step comes April 4, when all three congregations vote on whether to accept a “letter of intent” to begin a formal unification. If that is approved, a transitional board of directors would draw up the legal framework. A second series of votes on the official plan would be held by January 2014.